Entering

At nine o'clock sharp, the gates of Garbage Dump finally opened once more. As the gang members streamed out, the poor who had long been gathered outside the dump finally started moving, pouring inside. This time, no one stopped them.

Although the dump had eight entrances, each one still had to bear the pressure of thousands of people. In almost an instant, more than a dozen people lost their footing and fell. In a place like this, they might never get the chance to stand again.

Still, no body collectors were needed to deal with them. Garbage Dump itself had the function of "clearing away trash." According to Old Li, the dump was like Infinite City's digestive system: it digested and broke down garbage, eventually turning it into part of this world.

They said that Infinite City had originally been nothing more than a high-tech community. It was only by digesting garbage from all over the world that it had expanded to its current size.

As for why people didn't usually throw corpses into the dump... that was because, outside of Garbage Day, the dump was always in a state of "digestion." Forget going inside—even opening the gate would cause anyone standing nearby to be completely broken down by the force surging out.

But it was precisely because of this mechanism that Garbage Dump, where massive amounts of garbage descended every ten days, hadn't turned into one of the garbage mountains from his previous life.

Feng Xue wasn't here to earn money for living expenses, so he didn't rush in like the people at the front, risking a stampede. Instead, he moved forward slowly with the flow of the crowd.

But this passive movement didn't last long. Once they passed through the relatively narrow gates, the vast dump, covered in mountains of garbage, opened up before them. People quickly spread out, some pulling handcarts, others carrying baskets on their backs, and rushed toward anything that caught their eye.

At this stage, everyone was still holding back. There was plenty of garbage to go around, and unless someone found a True Thing, it was better to spend their time picking up a few more pieces of scrap iron than fighting.

Feng Xue strolled through the crowd of people rushing around. Every now and then, he saw one or two dazed figures by the roadside. They slowly climbed out of the garbage, looking utterly bewildered. Feng Xue immediately understood that these were the "garbage people" who had fallen alongside the trash.

"Ptooey, ptooey... Did I just insult myself too?" Feng Xue cursed his slip of the tongue, then activated his Golden Finger and began scanning the ground before him.

The work clothes provided by the Locker Room were incredibly sturdy, especially the work boots. Their thick soles wouldn't be pierced even if he stepped on a sharp blade, which made Feng Xue feel much safer as he moved around.

There was so much garbage around that just one sweep of Feng Xue's Golden Finger panel brought up a vast array of traits. He had to concentrate to search through the densely packed text for anything worth his attention.

"[Beauty], [Entertainment], [Cleaning], [Weapon]... Why is it all garbage... Wait, [Weapon]?! That's good stuff!"

Feng Xue had been listlessly scanning a string of traits when his eyes suddenly sharpened. He slowly turned his head back and scanned the area he'd just passed over, searching until the [Weapon] trait came into view again.

He didn't hesitate. He immediately bent down and began searching the spot his reticle was aimed at. After tossing aside some gravel, rags, twisted strips of metal, broken planks, and other junk, he spotted a short knife about the length of his forearm.

Name: Peeling Short Knife

Traits: [Weapon], [Harvesting], [Piercing]...

"What's this..." Feng Xue's eyes widened. He immediately picked up the knife and wrapped its blade in a cloth strip he'd brought along, so it wouldn't tear through his bag. Only then did he put it into the large-capacity backpack he'd bought specifically for scavenging. It might've been just a canvas backpack, but without any brand-name markup, it had still cost him five hundred tower coins!

After that lucky start, Feng Xue's enthusiasm for work rose. There was garbage everywhere, but it was mixed with dirt, gravel, chunks of concrete, and the like. It shouldn't have been this way originally, but the gang members carried out destructive excavations to work more efficiently when sorting through True Things. Buildings, boulders, and other objects were smashed apart, burying many pieces of garbage that had once been separate.

Experienced scavengers could judge the likelihood of valuable garbage being buried in an area by looking at how the concrete, gravel, and dirt were distributed. Feng Xue clearly lacked that skill. His appraisal ability only worked on whatever his reticle was aimed at; he couldn't see through the earth. So he could only scan the garbage on the surface again and again, or pick through the junk other scavengers had dug out of the dirt.

As he walked, Feng Xue came across a patch of fallen trees. Even the trunks, which might have been somewhat useful, had already been taken. Only the crowns and scattered leaves remained, making for a desolate sight.

"[Death], [Withering], [Male]... I already have plenty of these traits..." Feng Xue shook his head and was about to leave when his expression suddenly changed—

"Wait. I can understand a tree having the Death trait, but why does it have a Male trait too?" At that thought, Feng Xue followed the trait and, sure enough, found a man's corpse among the branches.

After studying corpses for a while, Feng Xue had become fairly good at identifying them. He immediately saw that the man had died from a gunshot wound, and that he'd been dead for no more than two days. He wore a Ghillie Suit made of leaves and branches, but it had clearly been rummaged through. The gun and ammunition he'd likely carried were gone.

"He probably died before crossing over..." Feng Xue muttered and immediately went over. The most valuable items were gone, but there was still something on the man that interested him—

A Ghillie Suit.

Name: Ghillie Suit

Traits: [Concealment]...

That's right. This crude thing, woven from branches and leaves, had only one trait. Everything else was Garbled Code. But just that Concealment trait was enough to make Feng Xue's heart stir.

Traits were the accumulation of information. It was hard to say how things worked outside, but in Infinite City, even if Feng Xue knew how to weave a Ghillie Suit, it would be difficult to give it the corresponding trait—unless he took up a related profession.

Feng Xue folded the Ghillie Suit roughly. In an excellent mood, he resisted the urge to leave right away and continued deeper into the dump. But soon, a rumbling roar suddenly rang in his ears!